Machine to machine (M2M), that is, machine type communication (MTC), refers to information and data transmission from one machine to another by using a wireless network. Machine to machine is widely applied to multiple fields, including intelligent transportation, a building control system, a smart home control system, a video surveillance system, industrial monitoring and measurement, and the like. As the fourth revolution subsequent to computer, Internet, and mobile communication network in the information industry, the machine-to-machine industry is a development direction for a future network. A typical network structure is shown in FIG. 1.
A deployment location of an M2M device, such as a sensor, an electricity meter, and goods, may be in a place with poor coverage, such as a corner or a basement. It is predicted that by 2022, a quantity of user equipment of this coverage type will reach 1.55 billion. To enable these devices that are located in an area with poor coverage to successfully use an M2M network, coverage of the M2M network needs to be better than that of a current cellular network. Therefore, the coverage of the M2M network needs to be increased by 20 dB.
To meet a requirement of a coverage increment of 20 dB, a narrowband system enhances cell coverage in a manner of time-domain spectrum-spreading. A cell in which an enhanced coverage area exists may be referred to as an enhanced coverage cell, and a cell in which an enhanced coverage area does not exist may be referred to as a normal cell. In an enhanced coverage cell shown in FIG. 2, an area A is a normal coverage area of the enhanced coverage cell, and spectrum spreading is not required (referred to as 1×) for the area A; an area B/C is an enhanced coverage area of the enhanced coverage cell, and a spectrum spreading manner needs to be used for the area B/C, where a spread spectrum multiple used in the area B/C is 8 or 64 (referred to as 8× or 64×), respectively. In cells that need to be selected by user equipment (UE), both an enhanced coverage cell and a normal cell may exist. A measured cell that includes both an enhanced coverage cell and a normal cell is referred to as a multi-coverage-class cell. A measured cell that includes only a normal cell is referred to as a single-coverage-class cell.
Due to network coverage enhancement, an overlapping area certainly exists between a normal cell and an enhanced coverage cell. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, a cell in which an area A and an area B are located is an enhanced coverage cell, where the area A is a normal coverage area, and the area B is an enhanced coverage area. For example, a spread spectrum multiple used in B is 8 (referred to as 8×). A cell in which an area C is located is a normal cell. When the UE is located in an area covered by both the area B and the area C, and a spectrum spreading manner needs to be used in the enhanced coverage area B, where for example, the spread spectrum multiple used in B is 8 (referred to as 8×), data needs to be repeatedly received or measured eight times when the user equipment camps on the area B. A cell selection and reselection method specific to an enhanced coverage cell does not exist in the prior art. In a case shown in FIG. 3 in which an enhanced coverage cell and a normal coverage cell exist, according to an existing cell selection and reselection method, an enhanced coverage cell may be directly selected and data is repeatedly received, which causes a waste of resources and an increase in power consumption.